Whangarei public meeting
Tuesday 31 October
Waste policy
Waste levy
- A levy should be charged at the beginning like container deposit legislation. There is lot of support for a container deposit and/or a product stewardship approach that involves a change at the beginning of the supply chain.
Recycling, reuse and community
- Money must be made available for capital works projects. A clever way of doing this should be invented for example government purchasing the equipment and leasing it, or similar.
- Lack of capital for infrastructure is one of the major barriers for people working on the coal face of waste reduction.
- Community groups are the ones dealing with the issues on the coal face but they do not get enough support. Money needs to be made available to community groups.
- Industry gets all the attention. For example, producers involved in the Packaging Accord are getting the credit rather than community groups working on reducing waste.
Institutions and legislation
- There should not be a waste authority in Wellington. We do not need another bureaucracy - money will be sucked up in the administration of the authority.
Product Stewardship
- The voluntary approach has been too slow.
- Container deposit legislation is a good approach.
Education and information
- Consumer education is needed as well as positive financial incentives.
- A public education campaign about changing behaviour to be more sustainable is essential. A public education campaign must be run nationally.
- A social marketing campaign may be desirable.
General comments
- It would be good to see what has happened from these road shows and what changed as a result of feedback.
National environmental standards
Water
- In order to protect sources of drinking water for humans, councils need to be aware of the effects downstream when consenting.
- Agriculture should not affect water quality.
- Small water supplies are failing. Water is being taken straight from streams. There should be a public health risk management scheme to address these risks.
- Some people have UV treatment or filtration. People cannot afford to pay for water treatment.
- Dairying is a big investment and is very labour intensive.
- People need to be more aware of the impact of agricultural practices. Effluent and agriculture run-off leads to polluted waterways and dead lakes
- Land use controls are the only way to protect water quality.
- National Environmental Standards on drinking water sources and small water supplies may lead to additional controls, costs etc.
General comments
- The Public Health Unit should be invited to the local government meetings. They are actually local government and feel that they should be part of that meeting rather than the public one.
- Councils are pressured to approve subdivisions and development. A small rating base means that there are not enough staff to process consents and consider the environmental effects of applications.
- It is no use bringing in standards that cannot work. They need to be achievable and fair.
- Targets need to be achievable. The approach can be tiered. We need to start progressively. There needs to be a logical reason behind standards to create buy-in.
- More clarity is needed on national climate change policy.
- Help and assistance is needed if high standards are to be met.
- People experience a loss when they are suddenly told they cannot do something that they have always done.
- Northland is just not suitable for septic tanks.
- RMA training should be included in the school curriculum.
- Judicial committees do not have ecological knowledge.
- Models are needed of how things can be done correctly.
- The public is bombarded with too much information in written form. Information should be specific and targeted.
- More controls and monitoring are needed on agriculture and horticultural uses to ensure that land is not contaminated.
Water
Water allocation and usage
- There is interest in the amount of water needed to make products such as milk, beer, and paper.
- Developers should be encouraged to use new technologies and provided with guidelines on improving water harvesting. The district council does not have the capacity to keep up with technology.
- The Regional Council is not listing the names of tributaries on resource consents. This can limit input on the consent applications.
Water quality
- Increased development on the east coast is having an impact on streams, rivers and the coast.
- The felling of trees is impacting on water quality and resulting in increased sedimentation of rivers, streams and the coast.
- People are still using old farming practices.
- Regional Councils should assist with fencing off rivers and streams.
- People need to realise that water is not never ending.
- New Zealand is not really 100% pure clean and green. We are just kidding ourselves.
- The community need encouragement to take responsibility for water resources. Standards are great but they need to be practical for communities to be involved and need to be developed in partnerships
- We need to act now and invest in improving water quality so we will save resources and money in the future.
- If you do not have clean water you will have no people.
Flood risk management and catchment management
- There are conflicting policies to say you cannot build on significant ridges and cannot or should not build on flood plains. Builders/engineers just factor floods into the building. Land prices are high so there is no economic incentive for not building on flood plains.
- There is a high compliance cost associated with monitoring on works.
- Northland has some small catchments.
- Landcare could have a role in increasing knowledge in the community.
Septic tanks
- Septic tank solutions for the Far North need to be cheap or low cost and something practical that locals can build.
- Army engineers in Australia designed a low cost system for East Timor and this is now used for civil emergencies. Is this a solution for local New Zealand communities?
- Septic tanks cost $17,000. If locals build their own, they need an engineers report.
- Septic tanks do not work in Northland because of the soil e.g. clay.
General comments
- Some of the tools or solutions are political and not popular.
- There is concern about national standards not being good enough. We need to focus on the hydrology and carrying capacity of catchments. Solutions need to be local solutions.
- There is a lack of information on where water comes from and goes to support decision making.
Environmental reporting
General comments
- Environmental reporting should be based on hard evidence. Decisions made by politicians must be based on good information.
- The Council is taking action in relation to marine farming that is contrary to what the public wants.
- Provide consistent monitoring that is easy for councils to pick up
- How do you raise awareness that a particular document exists? Lots of planners did not know that the New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement was out there.
- Northland Regional Council has accessible, up-to-date and easy to understand information on the web.
- Councils need to be more pro-active to make people aware of the changes that are happening.
- There is not enough information for councils to make decisions, for example on subdivisions. Indicators need to be easily understandable and measurable.
- What is happening in relation to biodiversity? Hard evidence is needed to see what the state of biodiversity is. Who is doing what? How can councils make and support decisions?
- Consistent standards are needed for data. Data should be integrated nationally and be accessible.
Climate change
General comments
- Is climate change really happening? Measurement is critical, particularly with sea level rise. Nevertheless, the impacts of climate change are evident e.g. flooding. What can councils do? Perhaps the government should consider a national policy statement for flooding because gaps exist throughout the country in policy decisions.
- Good examples of carbon sequestration exist. People are keen to do something. Case studies are useful, particularly on how catchment management can be applied to the land.
- Inconsistencies in council decision making make public input difficult. Fighting in the courts costs a lot.
- Plan making was identified as a key stage in which to influence many of the outcomes sought.
General interest
Energy
- We should be looking at the recycling of energy.
- Northland’s power is vulnerable. Diversity is important. The transmission back bone is weak.
- A commitment should be made to diffuse generation including tidal energy and wind power.
- Government should establish a fund to support start up initiatives.
- New Zealand could be leaders in sustainable development.
- Rail should be used as it is more fuel efficient.
- We need to look at the environmental structure and what needs improving.
- We need to look at co-efficiency.
- New Zealand is behind the rest of the world in terms of what we use as fertilisers and how much we use.
Land use
- Information for consent applications is lacking or shallow. This leads to decisions that are awful for ecology and wildlife. For example:
- Intensive coastal residential development bounded 80% by DoC land.
- The timber industry is located in open country rather than in an industrial zone and is between two highly important ecological areas
- There is an apparent very close relationship between developers and councils
- There is little consideration of increased flood risk when allowing development.
- Home buyers attention should be drawn (via legislative means) to flood risk.
- Locating industry and the power industry behind dynamic dune systems is a huge risk.
- There is not enough forward planning, though it is starting in places.
- There is no protection for native trees on private land.
General comments
- The District Council has been issuing consents for regional matters.
- A huge responsibility is being put on general public to be vigilant.
- It is difficult for a council to make decisions given development pressures.
- There is a lack of co-ordination between district and local councils.
- There is a lack of ecological expertise in council planners/consents staff.
- Storm water and waste water treatment outflows are an upcoming issue.
- The council is not abiding to the agreement with the Maori Trust to let them know about consent applications.
- A consultation protocol is very important.
- Communication between departments needs to improve.
- Sustainability needs to be made ‘fashionable’.
- The Ministry should develop guidelines on building.
Last updated: 27 February 2008
